Israeli artist beats Gaza rockets into Hanukkah lamps

by
Reuters

Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:20 GMT

Israeli metal sculptor Yaron Bob works on a hanukkiyah, a candlestick with nine branches that is used during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, at his studio in Yated, southern Israel October 21, 2018. Picture taken October 21, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

In the run-up to the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, he was busy crafting a monumental hanukkiyah, a candlestick with nine branches that is used during the eight-day festival that starts this year at sundown on Sunday.

Also known as the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah commemorates the 2nd century BC victory of Judah Maccabee and his followers in a revolt in Judea against armies of the Seleucid Empire.

Light is key to the holiday because, Jewish tradition says, the Maccabees found only enough ritually pure oil to fuel a ceremonial lamp in the temple in Jerusalem for one day, but it burned for eight days.

Bob also makes the seven-branched menorah, a symbol that appears on the emblem of the State of Israel.

"The idea of turning rockets into menorahs and hanukkiyot is turning the symbol of death and destruction into a symbol of light, and hanukkiyah is the symbol of light," Bob said.

A hanukkiyah, a candlestick with nine branches that is used during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, crafted by Israeli metal sculptor Yaron Bob, is seen at his studio in Yated, southern Israel October 21, 2018. Picture taken October 21, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Israel and Gaza militants have fought three wars in the past 10 years, and violence occasionally erupts along the frontier.

This year alone, more than 230 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and two Israeli soldiers and one Palestinian killed by Hamas militants either in border protests or conflict.

Israel maintains tight conrol of the enclave's land, air and sea borders while the wider Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been stalled for several years.

But the skies have been empty of rockets and missiles since a flare-up in mid-November in which more than 400 projectiles were fired from Gaza and Israel mounted dozens of air strikes.

"We have only between 10 to 15 seconds to run for shelter, so every millisecond counts, and because of that we are in anxiety," Bob said.

"When I'm taking the rockets and I cut them and I put them in the furnace and I'm working with them or with the blow torch and I'm working, I'm like destroying, annihilating the rockets. So, this is my therapy."

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